


ignited

by kurgaya



Series: firestain [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Hatake Sakumo Needs a Hug, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Original Character(s), Protective Hatake Kakashi, Sakumo Lives, Tetsu no Kuni | Land of Iron, or are they?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28590753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurgaya/pseuds/kurgaya
Summary: It’s not that Kakashi wants to be away from his father, but one of them has to figure out what’s going on with this clan, and this city, and this nation, and Sakumo’s just been sleeping. He's bored of sitting around, waiting for things to occur. He’s a shinobi of Konoha: he can make things happen.[Sakumo Leaves AU. Kakashi makes some friends and chooses his enemies].
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi & Original Hatake Character(s)
Series: firestain [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951453
Comments: 15
Kudos: 56





	ignited

**Author's Note:**

> A few new OCs in this one! My Hatakes just keep looking at bb Kakashi and deciding to parent him and that's VALID.

“Looks like you’re a-okay to me,” Naruhito says, sliding the thermometer out from under Kakashi’s tongue. “That cough all gone now? Great. Told you my tea would help!”

Kakashi nods, his face still twisted from the taste of the thermometer. Naruhito’s tea didn’t taste any better, but at least it soothed his sore chest. His dad always looks glum drinking it, too, so that makes Kakashi feel better about it. Hopefully, with their clean bills of health, they’ll never have to subject themselves to it again.

“Thank you,” Sakumo says. His temperature is gone, too, but he doesn’t sound any better. As far as Kakashi can tell, his dad looks the same as he always has: sickly and tired, as though he has a cold he can’t shake. He’s been in bed all morning, and yet the more he sleeps, the more he seems to need it. He didn’t wake up for breakfast or lunch, and soon it will be dinner. Maybe his fever is lingering. Maybe Naruhito is wrong.

Kakashi’s not sure. He would like it to be that simple, but he’s not stupid. His dad’s not well. He’s not been well for months.

“Happy to help,” Naruhito says. “If you ever need anything, just give me a shout. Me an’ Mikamo are here in the west wing with you, so someone’ll hear you. You ever want a cup of tea, just swing by anytime.”

Sakumo smiles politely. Kakashi knows it’s a polite smile and not a real one because he used to use it with Kakashi’s Academy teacher - and then the Hokage, and then most of the village. Kakashi’s no good at smiling like that, so he just frowns behind his mask.

Samurai Rentaro and Sajin are both on duty today. Naruhito and Sajin talk for a while in the corridor, and it must be about Sakumo, because Kakashi can’t fathom any other shared interests between them. They’re both blond, and samurai, and he _thinks_ Sajin’s family is noble, but he’s been struggling to keep track of everything. He learned about the founding and noble families of Konoha back at the Academy, but none of that knowledge is useful here. Kakashi wishes it was. He hates that everything he knows is _useless_ now.

“You’re not bedridden anymore, pup,” Sakumo says, brushing hair from Kakashi’s eyes. The thick lines of the suppression seal glimmer on his skin. “Why the scary face?”

“No reason,” Kakashi says. “We still can’t leave the house, right?”

“That’s right. I’m sorry, it should only be a little longer.”

“Can I… should I go look around?”

They’ve been stuck in here for _days_. Their quarters are nice enough, and his dad likes the balcony, but Kakashi wants to see the rest of the house. He’s only caught glimpses of it so far, when they arrived and whenever they visit Lady Hisa. Most of the windows are too high to reach. They might as well be paintings of another world for all Kakashi can see through them; paintings of a white world, a vast one, and cold even in sight. He didn’t often travel to the top of the Hokage’s Rock, but when he did, he could see for _miles_. He could see the entire village clustered together with brown and red rooftops, and then further to the Nara Forest, and then even further than that. Tenzaburō is on a mountain. Whoever founded it had more defensive strategies in mind than Konoha’s founders, and Kakashi wants to _know_ what they saw.

But they’re on house arrest. So he’ll settle for exploring the estate, first. He wants to know more about the people living here. He _needs_ to know. It’s not that he wants to be away from his father, but one of them has to figure out what’s going on with this clan, and this city, and this nation, and Sakumo’s just been _sleeping_.

Kakashi’s bored of sitting around, waiting for things to occur. He’s a shinobi of Konoha: he can make things happen.

“Ah, well,” Sakumo says. “I suppose so. Pending our guards’ approval…”

Rentaro appears in the bedroom doorway. She has a kind face but she speaks even less than Sajin, and Kakashi can’t discern how she feels about them. She keeps to the edges of the room, for the most part, and has never once told them what to do. But her presence is a constant reminder that they are shinobi in a foreign land, and that land hasn’t decided what to do with them yet. The sealer has yet to return to release them from their bonds, but the General hasn’t thrown them in prison or worse - and Kakashi can think of many things that are worse.

“You’re not confined to these quarters, Sakumo,” Rentaro says. She has the voice of someone who has said this many times. “The house is yours.”

“With accompaniment,” Sakumo says.

“With accompaniment,” she agrees. “I can escort Kakashi."

Sakumo hesitates - so Kakashi hesitates. What had seemed like a good idea now feels like misbehaviour. There is a fine line between Sakumo’s happiness and despair; it’s like a trail of leaves up to their house, quivering in the wind. Kakashi used to kick the leaves off the path - and Konoha has done its fair share of kicking his father down. He doesn’t want to do that. He doesn’t want to upset his father at all.

But this house is large and full of unknowns. (Konoha loomed large and unexpectedly unknown). And Kakashi refuses to sit back and do nothing again.

“I suppose that’s fine,” Sakumo says, but he’s not looking at Kakashi, and not reassured by him at all. “For a few hours. He -”

“Will be safe,” Rentaro insists. “There is no one here who wishes him harm.”

“I can look after myself,” Kakashi says, and finally the adults look at him, Rentaro’s face carefully devoid of emotion, and Sakumo’s so heavy with it that there hardly seems to be any at all.

Kakashi’s newly found freedom is nerve-wracking. He tries not to show it. Their quarters are tucked into the west wing, on the second floor. It’s hard to wrap his head around the layout. The balcony in their rooms overlooks the garden, and the cliffside overlooks the house from the back. Somewhere above the estate is the General’s castle, further up the mountainside. Kakashi knows he won’t be seeing that for a while, but he tries to picture it as he wanders through the wing. His head starts to hurt from imagining a building even more extravagant than this one.

Most of the house is shut behind daintily-lit shoji, but occasionally they pass an alcove or open space. He quickly realises that the house is laid out in a square, with the four cardinal wings enclosing a gigantic staircase at the centre. It’s not the same as the compound back in Konoha, but it's almost familiar. In Konoha, their home was a series of connected, one-story buildings surrounding a courtyard, and in the summer, they used to open all of the doors to let a breeze in. Here in Tenzaburō, the Hatakes live in one large mansion, and the stairs are where the courtyard would be. There might be out-houses somewhere, like there were in Konoha, but Kakashi doesn't remember much from their arrival. He peers through the diamond-lattice bannister at the top of the stairs and watches people come and go across the foyer. Most of them look like staff, dressed simply and working quickly, but occasionally there is a flash of white against the dark floor.

“Who are they?” Kakashi asks, pointing to two women. “Their actual names. I know you don't use them.”

Rentaro moves only her eyes. “That is Lady Hiru and Lady Hinome.”

“They’re old,” Kakashi comments. The one with the short hair looks like Hisa, the grumpy matriarch with the disgusting tea, but with twenty years smoothed off her face. He says as such.

“They are her daughters,” Rentaro says. “They are not usually at home.”

“They’re samurai?”

“Every Hatake is a samurai.”

“I’m not.”

“No,” Rentaro says, and her voice is the softest Kakashi’s ever heard. He can’t help but look up at her. “But I believe you will be."

Kakashi frowns, unsettled by her confidence. He’s a shinobi, not a samurai. And he can’t be both. He turns back to the stairs to watch Hiru and Hinome. They don’t look like samurai. Neither of them are wearing the silver armour, and Hinome doesn’t even bear a weapon. He wonders where they’ve been for the last few days, and if they know about Kakashi and his father. If they’re Hisa’s daughters, then one of them, at least, must be next-in-line for the clan head. Assuming they out-live their mother. Hisa’s even older than the Third Hokage, and the Third Hokage is _ancient_. Kakashi didn’t think anyone could be older than that.

“What are they like?”

Rentaro makes a curious sound. “We can go downstairs -”

“No,” Kakashi says. Hiru and Hinome look as though they’ve having a serious conversation. The middle of a foyer hardly seems the place to have such a discussion, and yet something about the way they’re standing gives Kakashi the impression that the conversation _is_ private. They’re not whispering, and their heads aren’t ducked together, but everybody else offers them such a wide berth, and yet ignores them so discreetly, that it’s _obvious_ they’re better left undisturbed. Kakashi doesn’t dare approach. Everything he’s ever learned on missions is telling him not to.

He continues watching until they're gone. It's hard to say if they really are considering his chakra is sealed, but he can't hear them anymore. He doesn't know about the Hatakes in Iron, but _his_ hearing is pretty good. His sense of smell is enhanced, too, but it hardly seems to matter in this snow covered land.

Somebody steps into the foyer with a coat over their arm. The chandeliers over the stairs tinkle with a cold burst of air. Yokaze brought Kakashi and his father into the house near here, Kakashi remembers, and he heads downstairs in search of the door. He knows he can't leave, but he can at least map the exits and report to his father.

Somewhere outside, dogs begin to bark. Kakashi almost misses the last step in his haste to find the door. At once, he forgets Hiru and Hinome, and Sakumo's sad eyes and Rentaro's watching ones, and bee-lines towards the barking. There are voices too, one of them shrill and excited, and as Kakashi throws open a door, he finds it belongs to a girl. She's about his age and hugging a very large, very happy dog, but that's all Kakashi notices before Rentaro calls his name.

He freezes in the doorway. The little girl freezes too. The dogs don't, their heads whipping up in excitement and their tails wagging fiercely. One of them vaults up onto the porch, eyes fixed on Kakashi. Rentaro steps in-between them in a heartbeat, but he doesn't think it's to stop the dog.

"Heel!" someone calls. It's not the little girl but a woman standing near her, leashes and harnesses in hand. She’s wrapped up warm and her expression is so fierce that she might start breathing fire.

The dog skids to a halt at Rentaro’s feet. It’s almost as tall as Kakashi is and drops its head guiltily, ears flattening. Kakashi tries to reach for it but Rentaro blocks the way.

“I’m so sorry,” the handler says, leashes jingling as she approaches. The little girl skips behind her, and the other dog follows obediently, tag wagging. “They usually know better than to leap at strangers.”

“He’s not a stranger,” the little girl says, pointing at Kakashi. “Your hair’s white, like the lady’s. Are you in the Hatake clan, too? I’m Suiju, I don’t recognise you.”

The handler makes a pained sound.

“I’m Kakashi. Are these your dogs?”

Suiju’s face lights up. “Kind of! We look after them for the lord and lady. This one’s Aka and that one’s Ao.”

Kakashi’s jaw twitches at the names. Neither of the dogs are anywhere near red or blue, except for their panting pink tongues and their gummy smiles. “Can I pet them?”

“Yeah, they don’t bite!” Suiju says. “Mum, can he pet them?”

Rentaro and the handler share a look over Kakashi’s head. He’s too preoccupied with Ao’s fuzzy muzzle and perked ears to care.

“Stay on the deck,” Rentaro orders.

“ _Nicely_ ,” Suiju’s mother tells the dogs, and then they pounce.

Kakashi knows how to handle a big dog; he’s lived with his father’s wolves. Aka and Ao are huge and snow-bred, and they have just as much muscle as fur. Kakashi chakra-sticks himself to the porch and braces himself - and the dogs bowl him over, head over heels, his chakra fizzling in surprise and short-circuiting at the seal. _The seal_. His ink-marked arms are suddenly filled with two, wriggling, boisterous balls of energy, and then Kakashi hits the porch hard, and it’s all over.

He smiles. They’re not as good as wolves but - it’s close.

If the dogs slobber over him too much, Kakashi’s sure their tongues will freeze to his face. They’re all saved from this fate by the crunch of snow along the path; footsteps, two sets, and then many more as the dogs whip around to the newcomers. There is a man and a woman, laden with their weight’s worth of bags, boxes, and a strange, wooden frame. The dogs yip and jump, and the man jumps too as they tackle him into the snow. The woman throws her head back and laughs.

It’s Makaze. Everything about her is white and lost to the snow, except her glasses, which she loses when one of the dogs takes her out at the knees.

Suiju’s mother calls the dogs back to no avail. She sighs, but it sounds amused rather than annoyed. “My lord Moritsugu, is that you?”

The man beset by dogs waves a greeting. His arm sticks out like a flag in surrender. “It’s all right, it’s all right! They’re just happy to see me - aren’t you? Yes you are. Oh, I’ve missed you. I know. Yes I have.”

Kakashi has a feeling he knows who named the dogs.

Makaze picks herself up out of the snow. She takes her time brushing down her coat and fixing her hair. Moritsugu laughs and squeals under the dog pile, but she ignores him in favour of finding her glasses. They didn’t fall far. She stares at them directly for a moment too long.

Kakashi rushes over to help her. “Here.”

“Kakashi? Oh, thank you,” Makaze blinks owlishly, her face as red as a peach. She smiles. “What are you doing out here, sweetheart? Is your dad with you?”

“He’s with me, my lady,” Rentaro says, approaching from behind. Her shield bumps Kakashi’s back and he remembers he wasn’t supposed to leave the deck. Or the house. Rentaro doesn’t scold him but it _feels_ like she does. “Are you all right?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Makaze says. She clasps Moritsugu’s hand and heaves him up. “Come on, dad. Get your stuff.”

Moritsugu sputters. His hair is black and grey and licked to his face, and his flower-patterned glasses are askew. He doesn’t look particularly like Makaze - his jaw is sharper, his hair shorter, and his face has as many wrinkles as she does freckles - but then he smiles. It’s her smile. “My things!”

He dives down to collect his belongings. It’s… melodramatic. One of the boxes has tipped open, and rectangular, metal cases and paintbrushes are sinking into the snow. The wooden frame must be for paintings. One of the bags is tube-shaped and must be for art. He gathers everything with a frantic energy so unlike the other Hatakes, and Kakashi can’t help but think of Dai.

“That must be everything. Makaze, dear, would you…? Thank you.” Moritsugu dumps some things into her arms. Then he shoos the dogs. “All right, you two, skedaddle! You’ll see me later, don’t you worry. I hope they’ve been good?"

“Of course, my lord,” Suiju's mother says. She reigns the dogs in and now they’re perfectly behaved. Of course they are. “Forgive the intrusion.”

“Nonsense, nonsense,” Moritsugu says. He adjusts his glasses, and he only seems to become more dishevelled by the minute. “Forgive _my_ intrusion. I’ll let you get back to work, hmm? I should probably get this stuff inside -”

He falters at the sight of Kakashi. His mouth drops slack.

“ _Hollyhocks_ , Makaze, another one already? How long have I been gone?”

Makaze laughs. “He’s not _mine_. Honestly, dad.”

“What? Don’t tell me he’s your sister’s -?”

“ _Dad_. This is Kakashi. I mentioned him, remember?”

“Kakashi? Oh, one of the boys from the Land of Fire! It’s very nice to meet you Kakashi, how are we related?”

Makaze laughs disbelievingly, but Kakashi has been listening to his father’s conversations, and he knows the answer:

“My great-grandfather was Lady Hisa’s brother.”

Moritsugu thinks long and hard. “Cousins, then! I can’t be faffed to think of the rest. Is that a first cousin? Twice removed? Makaze, you know these things.”

“Let's say cousins,” Makaze deflects. “Kakashi, this is my dad. Most people know him as Samurai Moritsugu, but -”

“Family’s family,” he cries. “It’s Kaneshige for you, kiddo. Grab a bag, help me get this lot inside.”

Kakashi doesn't have a choice as Kaneshige drops a bag into his arms. Whatever is inside rattles loudly, and he assumes they're paint pots. He's ushered past Suiju (“Bye!”) and her mother and back into the house before he can protest, and he barely has time to switch his shoes before Kaneshige urges them along. So they follow: Kakashi and Makaze and Rentaro rattling and clanging with paints, brushes, and easels. Kaneshige leads them upstairs and into the west wing, and Kakashi has a terrible thought that they're going to _his room_. Luckily, Kaneshige detours at the last second and brings the marching order to a stop at the end of another corridor. He opens a door.

"Just put everything in here. Yes, just all of it - except the tea cups. Where are the cups? Your sister won't be happy if I've broken - oh, Kakashi, good. You've got them. They'll have to go back downstairs - do you know your way to the foyer? Good, just leave them somewhere obvious, and be careful with them! I'm sorry, I'm terrible with names. Guard…? Rentaro, wonderful, can you put those…"

Kaneshige ushers the others further into the quarters, leaving Kakashi into the doorway. He waits for a moment, but nobody reappears to stop him, so he hikes the bag up his shoulder and ducks out into the corridor.

He back-tracks to the foyer. Somewhere along the way, he realises he’s taken a wrong turn, and the maze-like mansion winds ever onwards before him. He's sure the staircase wasn't so far away. As he spins around to return, he hears footsteps behind him. Instincts hurtle him around the corner before he sees that it’s Hiru and Hinome. He holds his breath; he’s hardly hidden. His chakra is brimming anxiously under his skin and it’s going to give him away. They’re right there and they’ll sense him. They’re powerful samurai and his chakra is sealed and there’s nothing he can do against them and -

They stop by a door. They’re samurai. They don’t turn towards him.

His chakra is sealed. They’re not _shinobi_.

“You’ll have to speak to him,” Hiru goes on, her expression sour. Her lips are a bright and violent red, and Kakashi supposes it’s supposed to be pretty, but it looks like she’s dipped her mouth in blood. “I’m having a hard enough time dealing with mum.”

“Naturally,” says Hinome.

Hiru wrenches the door open. The entire house seems to shake.

“This is the most fun she’s had in years,” she says, and she must mean Hisa and her victorious smile. “The White Fang on our doorstep? What an opportunity. What a _game_. She could be straightforward but _no_.”

Hinome smiles slightly. “Why would she? It’s less entertaining.”

They disappear through the door.

Kakashi’s heart is frozen in his chest. He counts for ten slow seconds - and then twenty, thirty, a minute. No-one else appears. He feels off-kilter for a moment, his mind abuzz with possibilities. They were discussing _his dad_.

He can’t sit by and do nothing. He told himself he wasn’t going to do that anymore.

His options are limited - but it feels strange to even have options again. For the first time since he left Konoha, he's alone. It’s only a matter of time before Rentaro comes searching for him - and she may already be on her way. He can’t yet hear the dull thud of her shield as she walks, but she’s as quiet as any good shinobi, and there’s no telling what her skillset is. She may only be a statue in their quarters, with nothing more exciting to do than stand and watch, but Kakashi doesn’t let himself forget that she is a fully-trained samurai. It may only be a minute until she finds him; it may only be seconds.

He has to take that chance. He is a shinobi of Konoha. Whatever Hiru has to say about his father, Kakashi has to know.

He sets the bag of cups down as though it were an exploding tag, chakra-live. He holds a crouch for a few seconds, but he’s not hesitating. His mind is made. The shoji is well maintained and Hiru slid it open with ease. Kakashi can do better. He half-rises and crosses the corridor in one motion, stopping as close to the door as possible. The base of the frame is smooth. He presses his shoulder against it and tries to muffle the sound as he lifts. Then he pulls, clutching the edge of the panel. It slides open silently, slowly, and then just enough to slip through. He leaves it open for a quick escape, and bears the weight until it settles back into the frame.

He steps onto tatami mats. There isn’t another corridor - but a room. There are two rooms, in fact, or one large one divided in the centre. A sliding partition splits the two, and it is beautifully decorated with oceanic scenes. Behind it, a low light glows. Two silhouettes move across it and then shrink in size: two people sitting. Kakashi steps around the only furnishing in this room - a low table and cushions - to crouch near the partition. He sits just off to the side to prevent his own silhouette, but the partition is thin. A third person walks by on the other side and he is sure that they see him, but then he hears the splash of liquid as tea is poured. Ceramic chinks gently. Somebody sighs.

“If you were anyone else, I’d call this a bribe,” Hinome says.

Hiru scoffs. “Please. Bribing you is a waste of time. You’re the only one who will drink that shit, I might as well be rid of it.”

“You never were the diplomat.”

“I’ll poison it next time, then.”

Kakashi’s eyebrows hit his hairline. Hiru doesn’t sound like she’s joking - but Hinome laughs.

“No, that’s far too underhanded for you,” she says. Her silhouette stretches sideways and ceramic clinks as she sets down her cup. Kakashi wishes he could see their faces but he doesn’t dare peek through the partition. They may not be shinobi, but even samurai would notice a screen beside them opening.

“What documents are you after?” Hinome asks.

“Foreign policy,” Hiru says, and Kakashi presses closer to the screen. They’re not only discussing his dad, but Kakashi’s _village_ too. “And anything public you’ve stuffed into the Archives.”

“There won’t be much. Konoha isn’t exactly forthcoming with information.”

It’s Hiru who laughs this time - louder and brash. She laughs like she doesn’t care who’s listening. “Have we ever needed them to be? Whatever you can get will be fine.”

Kakashi chews his lip. Hiru mentioned public documents but it sounds like they’re talking about spies. He didn’t think the Land of Iron had anything to do with the other nations, content to keep to itself at the top of the world. His classes in the Academy hardly discussed it, focusing instead on the five Great Shinobi Nations and their shared histories, their shared wars. He’s never thought about the Land of Iron as a nation that could resort to espionage - and he doubts the Land of Fire thinks so either.

“What else?” Hinome presses. “Come on, I thought you were the straightforward one. You don’t need me to access the Archives. What else do you want?”

“Medical records.”

Kakashi frowns. He can only assume she means Sakumo’s medical records - but why? He’s not sure what sort of information the Konoha Hospital keeps about people, but it can’t be anything worth reading. Hiru doesn’t seem like the type of samurai (of spy?) to go around stealing people’s blood charts. The only thing Kakashi can think would be of interest to a foreign nation is a kekkei genkai, but he’s sure that would be in the shinobi registration records and not the medical records, and regardless, the Hatake clan doesn’t even have one.

Hinome echoes his confusion. “Medical records? What for?”

“Can you get them?”

“Have some faith in me, please. It’ll have to come through the Iidas. But why medical records?”

Hiru takes a moment to respond. “I’m not sure. It was just something mum mentioned.”

“Mum doesn’t _mention_ things,” Hinome says - whatever that means. “All right. And the child?”

Kakashi stifles a breath. She means _him_. He leans a little closer and places his hand on the partition without thinking. It _creaks_. He snaps his hand away and jumps to his feet, and two of the silhouettes move. The third one is nowhere to be seen, he realises, and in an instant, he knows he cannot stay. The samurai are bigger than he is - and they might be faster, and stronger, and could catch him in a heartbeat. The fact that he was hidden was the only advantage he had and now he’s gone and ruined it.

The risk is too high. Kakashi zips back out into the corridor before he hears what the women say. The bag of teacups is where he left it, and he scoops it up without a care for the ceramics instead. His hands are sweaty. His mouth is dry. He needs to tell his father what he’s learned. He thinks he hears a door slide open and he’s halfway down the next hall before he has a conscious thought.

The air is colder. He might be in shock - or he might be near the stairs.

“Kakashi!”

It’s Rentaro. For once, her voice is raised.

Kakashi all but slams into the bannister of the stairs. Something in the bag makes an unpleasant noise. It might be Kakashi’s teeth clamping through his tongue.

“I - got lost,” he tries. It’s a flimsy excuse. He thinks about adding an apology but he’s not sure if that will make his lie more or less believable.

Rentaro’s expression twitches. Kakashi really must have worried her to crack her facade.

He doesn’t apologise. He lets Rentaro take the bag and lead him back to the west wing. She marches him straight back to his own quarters where Samurai Sajin is standing guard at the door. His masked face is unmistakable, and he bows as they approach, a twinkle in his eyes.

“Hey kid, you look like a dog got you.”

“Two,” Kakashi says, barely listening. He doesn’t care about the dogs anymore. He needs to sort his own thoughts out before he tells his father anything, and he needs to be sure that Hiru and Hinome didn’t know he was there. Getting his father into trouble would be… bad. Fear settles in Kakashi’s chest. The General could throw them in jail. He could throw them out. He could _kill_ them. Konoha wouldn’t care.

“Yeah?” says Sajin. “Hey Ren, you look like a _cat_ got you. I don’t often see you rattled. What’s up?”

Rentaro sighs very loudly and opens the door.

“Sounds like you two had a good time,” Sajin adds. “You should tell your dad about it, Kakashi. I’m sure he’ll be happy to know. He’s been pretty quiet today.”

Kakashi’s stomach drops. Every thought he has of reporting everything he heard to his father disappears. He realises that he can’t say anything about what he heard - not to anyone, but especially not Sakumo. Risking himself is one thing, but Kakashi won’t risk his dad.

His dad has enough to deal with already. What would happen if Kakashi turned this clan against him too?

 _I’m a shinobi of Konoha_ , Kakashi thinks, and the mantra settles his nerves. He's capable: he has the headband to prove it. _I’m not a samurai._

He steels himself. He’s a shinobi.

He has to protect his dad.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! And thank you for all your lovely comments, they really inspired me to write this piece :)
> 
> In-fic Hatake OCs:  
> \- **Naruhito / Samurai Shizen** : a cheerful medic  
> \- **Kaneshige / Samurai Moritsugu** : an eccentric artist, Makaze's father  
> \- **Makaze** : a young woman with curly hair, good at sewing, Yokaze's wife  
> \- **Hiru & Hinome**: sisters in their 50s, Hisa's daughters
> 
> Mentioned Hatake OCs:  
> \- **Mikamo** : Naruhito's wife  
> \- **Hisa / Samurai Yoshihime / Gran-Gran** : the matriarch, Sakumo's great-aunt  
> \- **Yokaze / Samurai Kyōsuke** : a blond ranger and mentor, Makaze's husband
> 
> Other Major OCs:  
> \- **Samurai Sajin & Samurai Rentaro**: guards assigned to Sakumo and Kakashi during their house arrest  
> \- **Suiju** : a girl around Kakashi's age, a friend?


End file.
